The Rise Of ‘Fake’ Celebrities

TATTLES consider a celebrity to be someone who is widely celebrated and recognised for remarkable actions or work leading him/her to be famous. By that definition, people like Chimamanda Adichie, Genevieve Nnaji, Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde, Dapo Oyebanjo aka D’banj, Innocent Idibia aka 2Face, Paul and Peter Okoye aka P-Square and others, in that light, are celebrities. Now, let’s shed some light on “the Nigerian celebrities/ popular people”.

Some of us refer to these people as ‘celebrities’, but they are, actually, just popular, until they find a reason to be likened to a celebrity. Some of these people have no distinct career path and litter themselves across all corners of the Nigerian entertainment industry, playing the role of “jack of all trades”, until they eventually find a non-talent demanding role which they can stick with.

These people enter the industry with the singular goal to rape every iota of proficiency in the entertainment industry, as well as get fame and money. You see them jump from being terrible video vixens, models, bleached and proud, celeb best friends forever (bffs) to lousy red carpet presenters for radio and television, bloggers, columnists and, before you know, they start featuring in movies, dropping awful music and even have the guts to champion conferences claiming expertise in these fields.

Since the emergence of these ‘special people’ in the entertainment industry, the term “media personality” has been adulterated. This is not to say we don’t have credible media people in Nigeria but these “Nigerian celebs/ popular people” have succeeded in stealing the term from the real professionals. To those who suffer from this syndrome, my reaction is just a heavy sigh (mtcheeew), because they are the same people supporting this trend. I know there are still some of us who have refused to condone this ugly emergence.

But, again, who are we kidding? Celeb, popular person/ media personality or whatever term they coin for themselves, are still making their money. We can only sit, relax and find some comic relief in their ‘career’ of choice.